$71,000 alternative or bogus investment?

Reader says...

I have been very sad and disappointed with these alternative investments that we had ventured with stupidity.

Like the Chinese sayings goes, for really good deals, "there is no such golden duck jumping around on the street". In other words, there is no such good deals.





If that is the case, why is our government still not educating people well about alternative investment, seeing a lot of them got their fingers burned due to such dodgy business.

We invested into alternative investment by XXXXXXX Holdings and got engaged with an agent from XXXXXX Solution Management Pte Ltd, a vendor of XXXXXXX Holdings contracted to do sales and marketing for their alternative investments products.





In total I have $71K invested.

We only received $10K and no payout since Nov 2016.

I wanted to report to the police many times, wanted to engage a lawyer to sue them for breach of contractual agreement and not paying up per contract.

But I was advised against this by the agent saying that law suit cases will delay the process to get back some money from these investments.





I had requested from the agent to share with us the list of investors that had been affected and maybe we can write some letters to MAS, the newspapers or to the police to warn the public regarding such scams and cheats, but the agent refuse to provide.

She said it was not a scam or fraud, just bad investments.





Sometimes I believe we need some authorities to know and take action on our behalf or at least for general public to be aware of such companies and be cautious about investing their monies with them.

Appreciate your advise and anyone who can enlighten my worries.

AK says...

I believe I blogged about XXXXXXX before.

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do apart from seeking legal advice and let the law take its course for whatever it is worth.





I believe there is little MAS can do to help you either because these "investments" are not regulated.

I feel your sadness and I hope you will be able to recover some capital.

Read related post at the end of this blog and know what questions to ask when offered such "investments". Read its comments section too.





Related post:
Invest $10,000 and get 24% yield!

FRS by 35 and $1 million in CPF account.

Reader says...
I have been an avid reader of your blog and inspired by your way of handling the cpf monies.

I have followed certain methods and have done my own research on the cpf system.





I am 33 yr old now and have drafted a goal of hitting the current frs on my special account by 35.

There is a shortfall of 50k to frs and it shld be done in the next 2 years.

I have max out my ma.





I live a simple life and dun demand for luxuries.

And if i can be gainfully employed till age 55. I hope to also hit above 1mio for my cpf acct.






My concerns are as i am somewhere further away from retirement age, my risk of cpf policy changes are higher compare to urs.

AK says...
Welcome to my blog. :)

If there should be changes to the CPF system and there have been changes over the years, if they are reasonable, I welcome them.

We have to believe that the government have the interests of Singaporeans at heart and that they are competent.

If we don't believe this, then, shun the CPF.





As for your plan to take full advantage of your CPF membership, it sounds like a good one.

Keep at it and you would have a cornerstone in retirement funding in your golden years. :)





However, remember that the Top Up to your SA (allowed till age 55 and as long as it is lower than the prevailing FRS) will enjoy income tax relief only for the first $7K per calendar year.

As it sounds like you are topping up more than $7K per year in the next 2 years to hit the prevailing FRS, you want to be aware of this especially if income tax relief is important to you (i.e. you are in a high tax bracket).

Gambatte!





Related posts:
1. $1 million in CPF by age 65?
2. A cornerstone in retirement funding.